The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-03)

2 2GN The Sunday Times April 3, 2022

NEWS

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PM wants ‘colossal’ wind farm in Irish Sea

Johnson has pushed for

six new plants by 2050 in

order to increase the amount

of UK energy from nuclear to

25 per cent, up from 11

gigawatts now to 24 gigawatts

by 2050. He is pushing for

smaller modular reactors to

be online by the end of the

decade, having joked last

week that he wanted one in

“every Labour constituency”.

Despite widespread

opposition among

Conservative MPs to onshore

wind, the strategy is also

expected to confirm a

liberalising of planning rules.

It follows concern that

changes to planning laws in

2015 under David Cameron

made it harder for onshore

turbines to get approval.

Ministers are looking at

offshore wind capacity more

than quadrupling to 50

gigawatts by 2030, up from 11

gigawatts.

To help accelerate the

construction of offshore

turbines, the government is

also looking at overhauling

planning and licensing

processes.

Johnson was told at the

meeting that it can take as

little as 24 hours to put up a

new turbine, but 10 years on

average to secure the

necessary permissions.

The strategy has been

delayed for several weeks due

to rows between Johnson and

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor,

about the cost of new nuclear

power stations.

wind and solar are also

expected to increase.

Johnson has also decided

to keep fracking on the table,

although it is not expected to

feature prominently in the

strategy, with ministers

awaiting more scientific

advice on whether it can be

conducted safely.

Outlining the scale of his

ambition at a meeting with

the wind sector on Thursday,

Johnson is said to have called

for “a colossal wind farm you

can float out into the middle

of the Irish Sea”.

One present said: “What

he said was ‘if we could come

up with a vaccine in a year

why can’t we do this in a

year?’ People at the meeting

said ‘well, we could’.”

Boris Johnson has called for a

“colossal” floating wind farm

in the Irish Sea as he prepares

to reveal the government’s

energy strategy this week.

On Thursday, the prime

minister is expected to set out

his long-term plan for

bolstering domestic energy

supplies and getting a grip on

the spiralling cost of living

crisis.

According to sources, the

strategy will centre on two

“big bets” on nuclear power

and offshore wind over the

next decade and will include

ambitious projections for the

amount of energy produced

by both. Targets for onshore

Harry Yorke, Caroline

Wheeler and Tim Shipman

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Michael Gove, the

levelling-up secretary, is now

expected to announce that

communities will get more

say on developments, but he

still intends to make it harder

for councils to object if

projects meet new rules.

The government’s plans

for wider-reaching reforms

to the judicial review process,

in which individuals and

organisations could challenge

official decisions in the

courts, have also been put

on hold.

The government will also

bring forward a bill to ease

the rules around genetically

edited plants.

Politics, pages 10-

a planning bill. Its remnants

will be incorporated into a

levelling-up and regeneration

bill, expected before the

summer recess.

The government had

proposed to introduce a

zonal planning system, which

would have split the country

into areas marked for growth,

renewal or protection. In

growth areas, housebuilders

would automatically get

approval for developments if

they stuck to certain rules.

However, the announcement

met with resistance from

dozens of Tory MPs, who

warned that weakening

homeowners’ ability to object

to developments was

“electorally toxic”.

Other plans expected to be

postponed include giving

workers a right to flexible

employment.

Government insiders say

the changes are necessary

because the timetable for

passing laws has slipped since

ministers’ focus has been

diverted to the pandemic.

But several of the policies

dropped have divided Tory

opinion. Although Johnson’s

cabinet hails largely from the

right of the party, he is

increasingly trying to balance

the views of backbenchers

from traditional southern

seats with those in former

Labour strongholds.

The most significant

climbdown is the shelving of

CULTURE

16-month police investigation that con-

cluded in July 2007.

“I have long wanted to see the way in

which parties are funded reformed but it

has not happened,” Levy said. “I do not

think it would be fair for the Conserva-

tives to be able to outgun Labour in an

election by raising tens of millions of

pounds. I think it is only fair there should

be some kind of level playing field for the

Labour Party.”

Levy, who has never forgotten his

working-class east London roots, said he

liked Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader,

“very much” and wanted to help him in

the same way. Levy is understood to be

helping the party’s fundraising efforts

and tapping up new donors to help to

turn around the party’s finances.

He is the latest New Labour figure to

return to the fold after having distanced

himself under the leadership of Jeremy

Corbyn. The Jewish peer had threatened

to leave Labour unless Corbyn addressed

antisemitism within the party.

In recent years Lord Levy has been

more interested in charitable fundraising

efforts, which are believed to have raised

more than £1billion for good causes.

The revelation comes after it was

revealed that Starmer is attempting to

secure funds from the daughter of Blair’s

biggest donor. The Labour leader is

believed to be in “tentative discussions”

with Fran Perrin about a substantial

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TRAVEL

10.05am The secretary of state for

transport, Grant Shapps

10.35am Jonathan Reynolds, shadow

business and industry secretary

12.20pm Dame Melanie Dawes, chief

executive of the watchdog Ofcom, on the

Online Safety Bill

2.15pm The actor Chris Reilly on his

new Apple TV+ spy thriller series, Slow

Horses

4pm Iuliia Mendel, former

spokeswoman for President Zelensky

THE REAL

MACRON

A second term

beckons, but just

who is France’s

leader? We ask

those who know

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the blue reversed

the fortunes of

not only Britain

but Argentina

LIGHTBULB

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If you’re worried

about the fuel bill

hike — and who

isn’t? — we’ve

tips that will help

THE RISE OF

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Next, America

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Sir Tony Blair’s chief fundraiser is helping

to tap up donors as he seeks to fill the

Labour Party’s coffers in time for the next

election.

Lord Levy, who became known as

“Lord Cashpoint” after raising so much

money for the party under Blair’s tenure

as prime minister, is helping to build the

party’s election war chest amid fears that

the Conservatives will outspend Labour.

The Labour peer, 77, who stepped

back from his fundraising activities in

2007 when Blair left Downing Street, said

he wanted to help Labour to “level the

playing field” with the Conservatives.

Levy raised more than £100 million for

Labour between 1994 and 2007, but not

without controversy. He secured a £1 mil-

lion donation from the Formula One bil-

lionaire Bernie Ecclestone, although the

money was later repaid to avoid accusa-

tions it had been used to “buy” policies.

Levy was cleared of any wrongdoing in

the “cash for honours” inquiry after a

donation that he hopes will help trans-

form the party’s financial fortunes.

Perrin, 43, is the daughter of Lord

Sainsbury of Turville, a member of the

supermarket dynasty who donated

£10.6 million to Labour over a decade

before cutting ties under Corbyn.

Labour’s new fundraising drive comes

after its ruling national executive com-

mittee (NEC) was given a “bleak” finan-

cial briefing in July last year, which

revealed that the party had ended 2020

with an unplanned deficit for the first

time since 2006.

While the party is expected to move

out of deficit this year, NEC members

were told that party finances were in a

parlous state due to £2 million-a-year

legal bills arising from antisemitism law-

suits, disciplinary cases and data protec-

tion breaches; a bloated workforce

throughout Corbyn’s tenure; and alleged

“vanity projects” under his leadership.

Levy made his money as an impresario

in the 1960s and 1970s, managing singers

including Alvin Stardust and Chris Rea,

and as the founder of Magnet Records.

Having sold the company to Warner

Bros for £10 million in 1988, he met Tony

Blair at an Israeli diplomatic dinner in

1994, the year he became Labour leader.

The two soon became tennis partners,

and Blair made him a life peer — Baron

Levy of Mill Hill — after Labour’s landslide

election victory in 1997.

Lord Cashpoint back

to fill Labour’s coffers

The party’s chief

fundraiser during the

Blair years, Lord Levy,

has returned to fix Keir

Starmer’s shaky finances

Caroline Wheeler Political Editor

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THE MAN WHO

MADE ADELE

The head of Sony

music explains

why we aren’t

seeing any new

British superstars

Boris Johnson is to drop key

parts of his legislative

programme as he attempts to

hold his party together.

The prime minister is

expected to confirm in next

month’s Queen’s Speech that

a bill to overhaul planning

rules and another on rights to

challenge government policy

in court are not longer on the

legislative timetable.

Although he will go ahead

with five bills “to deliver on

the opportunities of Brexit”,

Whitehall sources say key

proposals have been stripped

out due to wrangling between

government departments.

Harry Yorke and

Caroline Wheeler

Johnson rows back on planning and

courts in effort to avoid Tory split

Tory MP

suspended

over sex

pest claims

2015. The third woman said
      she did not go to the police as
      Warburton was a powerful
      man and that she would not
      have known where to start.
      She has evidence that she had
      told Warburton she did not
      wish to visit his property or
      have sex with him on the
      night of the alleged incident.
      Warburton refused to
      comment on the allegations
      yesterday. He also refused to
      answer questions about a
      loan from Roman Joukovski,
      53, a Russian-born
      businessman based in north
      London. One of Joukovski’s
      companies was forced into
      administration last year after
      the Financial Conduct
      Authority (FCA) ruled that it
      had “dishonestly or recklessly
      provided misleading
      information” to clients and
      banned it from certain kinds
      of regulated activity. The firm

→Continued from page 1

had specialised in helping

foreign citizens, including

oligarchs, structure their

wealth and obtain Tier 1

“golden” visas — a scheme

that the government

suspended this year.

Joukovski’s clients included a

relative of Nursultan

Nazarbayev, the longstanding

dictator of Kazakhstan and a

Putin ally.

According to leaked

emails, at the time that

Warburton received the loan

in 2017, he knew the FCA had

refused to grant Joukovski “fit

and proper person” status

several years earlier.

After Warburton received

NEWMAN’S

WEEK

the money, he took Jouvkoski

into the Palace of

Westminster and organised

formal meetings for him,

including one with Jacob

Rees-Mogg, the Brexit

opportunities secretary, who

was a backbencher at the

time. He also asked for

Joukovski to be added to a

mailing list for the All Party

Parliamentary Group for

Blockchain, the ledger used

to trade cryptocurrency, in

which the businessman was

interested.

A friend of Joukovski

insisted there was no quid

pro quo or expectation of

favours when he issued the

loan. If the loan was a purely

personal matter Warburton

will not have had to declare it.

Although Warburton

refused to answer questions,

he told The Sunday

Telegraph: “I have enormous

amounts of defence, but

unfortunately the way that

things work means that

doesn’t come out first.

“I have heard nothing

whatsoever from the

Independent Complaints and

Grievance Scheme. I’m sorry,

I can’t comment any further.”

The dishonourable

member, page 5

Editorial, page 22

Refugees

‘won’t wait

more than

two days’

uncapped and that security

checks must be performed on

all those entering the UK.

“People ask what possible

security concerns there could

be about all these women and

children leaving Ukraine,” he

said. “It’s not because we are

worried about being

infiltrated by Putin’s spies. It’s

about our concerns about

people trafficking... We have

to be certain that the children

are the children of the

mothers coming in.”

Harrington, who gave up a

lucrative career in the private

sector to take on the role, said

Patel and Michael Gove, the

housing secretary, were also

“obsessed” with getting the

scheme right.

“I thought I was finished

in politics. I took this job for

the refugees. I will do it for

as long as it’s needed to

be done.”

→Continued from page 1

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